By: Amanda Guarragi
There comes a time when everyone expects their favourite characters to go head-to-head in a final battle scenario. From ‘Civil War’ to ‘Batman v. Superman’ and now to ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’. The monsterverse has taken some hits in the past. However, the one character that always comes out strong and almost never disappoints is Kong. Yes, the title of the movie is ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ but this really is more of continuation of ‘Kong Skull Island’ than ‘Godzilla King of the Monsters’. Kong is the star of this film and his human connection to young Jia (Kaylee Hottle) was beautiful to see. That is something that the Godzilla films were lacking. I also don’t really think they know how to carry out Godzilla because there is no human connection and that is what makes Kong so loveable in the monsterverse.
Does Godzilla look cool? Yes. Does Godzilla have a wicked creature design, with so much detail, that you can see him breathing and see the scales on his body move? Yes. However, that’s all he does. The atomic breath was cool, the fight scenes with Kong were really intense and fun to watch as well. When it came to hand-to-hand combat, Kong really took some shots and he had you rooting for him the whole time. I wouldn’t consider Godzilla that much of a villain in this story. It’s more along the lines of this fight being inevitable since they both exist. The main issue in these monsterverse films, especially for Godzilla’s side is the human story. It’s a chore to sit through and it truly doesn’t add much to the film.
On the other hand, Kong has always had a very strong emotional connection to the humans in his film. Kong’s character development from ‘Skull Island’ is great to see. And by the end of this film, you will understand why a third and final Kong film is necessary. The beauty of Kong is that even though he is this larger-than-life, fictional creature, he is brought into the human world and he is respected. The character design was incredible for Kong and you felt such a strong connection to him. There are moments in this film that will make you feel for Kong on a human level. It has always been interesting to see how Kong interacts with humans and in ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ it was just beautiful.
‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ is a fun monsterverse film that will keep you at the edge of your seat during their fight scenes. It is only fun when Kong is on screen because the writing for the humans on Godzilla’s side wasn’t that strong and could have been better. I totally respect the humour Brian Tyree Henry brought to the table but even he couldn’t save it. In conclusion, Kong stole the spotlight, there needed to be more Godzilla and the human story wasn’t developed enough for Godzilla. Even though the movie did drag at times, I wouldn’t have minded a longer runtime to actually make me care for Godzilla.
Candid Cinema 